The Crafting Chronicles: New Beginnings (Final Copy)
by LeonidasCraft
Summary: Leonidas and Zoeya have found themselves marooned on a strange new land, the only survivors of their plane crash. No more than a few minutes after waking, they are met with a mysterious white eyed man; who disappears before they can question him. Gaining a companion named Paige, they must do their best to survive. (MC Concepts, but in a real world setting.) [The Re-Write is here!]


**Well... Here it is. The final copy of TCC:NB. This will be updated whenever I get the next chapter done. Probably won't be for a while, so if you're interested in this, I'd recommend following. You don't have to, but this chapter itself has taken months (of me writing on and off) to write. So.**

**As a side note, I drew a new cover; but it's on a computer I don't currently have access to. I will upload it ASAP, but this is a good placeholder.**

**I really hope you enjoy this, as it's taken a large amount of effort to write.**

**Thanks!**

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><p><span>Chapter 1: Leonidas<span>

"Thank you for your patience. The issue has been resolved, and take off will commence shortly." The speaker made a small crackling noise as the connection was severed. I allowed a small grin onto my face. Shaking my head and chuckling, I turned to the girl sitting next to me.

"It's about time, huh? I'm not sure how much longer I'd been able to take." She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

"You say it like you're the only one. This whole day has just been a mess. At least we can blame this one on them." She looked up, and pressed the button to turn on the fans. "I can't believe they board us all onto the plane BEFORE they realize there's a problem with it. It's bloody hot in here!" I actually laughed.

"I can't believe that you're actually complaining about the heat while wearing a SWEATSHIRT of all things." She simply gave me a small 'hmph' before leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes. I raised an eyebrow. "Hell, Zoe, did you actually pack any summer clothes? We're going to Hawaii, not Alaska."

"Of course I did! T-Shirts, Tank tops, Bathing Suits, all of that stuff." She opened one of her eyes, looking over at me. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up when we get there." She then pulled her hood up, closing her eye again. I frowned.

"And what am I supposed to do on the trip over there?" She shrugged.

"I dunno. Read a book? Listen to music? You have a phone ya know." I sighed, looking to my right, out the window. This morning had been a living hell; between getting up way earlier than I felt reasonable, to the traffic we'd hit on the way over here, it'd just been one thing after the other going wrong.

The sky had cleared up since leaving our apartment, which I suppose is nice. Cloudy days are good, but some sun here and there doesn't hurt. I folded my arms and placed them behind my head. The sound of the engines whirring up soon filled the plane, as we finally started to move. I tuned out the flight attendant, placing my ear buds in my ears. I took one last look out the window, before barely catching something I hadn't seen before.

A small, wisp-like figure floated in the corner of my vision. I could only faintly make it out due to the opacity of its body, but it was definitely there. I turned my head to look at it, but it was gone. I frowned, searching around for it for the next minute or two, with no luck. Resigning to the fact that whatever it is was gone, I sat back in my seat. Yawning, I sifted through my IPhone library. Eventually just picking one of the many chiptunes I had downloaded, I set it on repeat before closing my eyes. Apparently I was more tired than I had realized, because I soon drifted off.

...

I opened my eyes to a white landscape. Sitting up, I looked around. Aurora-like formations danced through the air around me, dissipating when I reached out to touch them. The entire place had an ethereal feeling to it.

"Leonidas." I didn't realize how quiet it had been until the silence was broken. I turned towards where I heard the voice. I found the same wispy figure from earlier floating a few feet away from me, slowly drifting up and down. With a better look at it, I observed it had no mouth, or nose, or really any facial features save for its eyes. Every time it moved, it left an opaque trail behind it, which slowly faded away. I instinctively flinched back upon seeing it, before noticing the sad look in its ghostly eyes. "Do not be afraid. I wish no harm upon you." I frowned, eyeing it nervously.

"What are you? Where am I?" It looked away.

"I have contacted you in your sleep. This is a sort of lucid dreamscape created by your subconscious. As for what I am…" It closed its eyes. "That's not important, or for you to know. What you do need to know however, is that you are in grave danger." It turned back to face me, a serious look in its eyes. "If things are allowed to continue as they are with no intervention by myself or others, you will die today. I'd like to prevent that."

"Erm." I bit my lip, looking away from the… thing. I'm not really sure how to react here. Wispy ghosts don't exactly come into my dreams every day to tell me of my imminent doom. "Alright..." I sighed. "So… Wispy…? Let's say I believe that this is all real, and just not some really lucid dream. I appreciate it, but why are you concerned with my well-being? Do you need me for some 'epic quest'? Am I some 'Chosen One'?" It shook its head- or rather, its body.

"No, nothing like that. Just… certain promises I made that I'm keeping my word on. Again, nothing you need to be concerned about." It made a sighing noise. "Back onto what I was saying. The plane you're on? It's going to crash." My eyes widened. "There will be no survivors. That includes you and your friend as well. I can change that, by getting you two out of there before the crash." I fidgeted with my fingers.

"So why are you telling me this? Why not just do it?" It made a gesture I interpreted as an eye roll, despite its lack of pupils.

"If you're freaking out about the ghost trying to save you as the plane is crashing, I won't be able to do what I need to do. So please, refrain from flailing or anything of the sort."

"Um. Alright, got it." I looked off to the side. "Where are you going to take us? Home?"

"I can't tell you. Not home though, no. To move two of you that distance in an instant would require way more energy than I have."

"Will we be able to get home…?"

"I wouldn't able to tell you, even if I did know. I'm already infringing on a lot of my kind's rules by what I'm doing here. Please, for your own good, and mine, stop asking questions." Its voice had a curt tone to it, and I decided it wasn't worth pushing any further.

"So what do I do now?" It closed its eyes. The landscape around me faded to black, as I lost consciousness.

...

I woke up to a disaster. People through the plane were screaming like mad, jarring me back to my senses. I quickly surveyed the immediate surroundings, trying to take in as much as I could in a few seconds. The window to my right was completely clouded with smoke, the flight attendants were futilely trying to calm the panicking passengers, and Zoey was busy clinging to my arm, screaming her throat out. I found the edges of my vison growing black, before the Wisp from my dream materialized in front of me. It gave me a quick nod, before slowly starting to rotate around us. I heard its voice in my head.

"Close your eyes, this is going to be bright." I did as I was told, wrapping my arms around Zoe. I felt a slight breeze start to brew around the two of us, before growing into a rapid whirlwind. I clung to my fading awareness, and everything went white. I conked out.

...

I groaned. A sharp pain pierced through my skull, as I struggled to make sense of anything at all. Feeling in my limbs slowly came back to me, and I gritted my teeth through the pain. Attempting to open my eyes, I was met with the blazing sun. I moaned, snapping them shut; the bright light blinding my unadjusted rods. I laid there like that, for a few minutes, before using my arms to slowly bring myself into a sitting position.

I gave opening my eyes another try, and was met again with the harsh light of the sun. Fortunately, it wasn't to the point of unbearable pain, so I was able to see. What I saw was not what I expected.

The ocean. Water, as far as I could see. I craned my head to the left and right, finding sand that stretched out of my viewing distance. My strained mind attempted to understand what I saw, only to fail miserably. _That can't be right…_

I bit my lip, trying to piece together the situation. My train of thought was cut short by a feminine moan coming from beside me. I looked down to find my friend and roommate, Zoe, lying there. She raised her hands to her face, pushing the mess of orange hair out of her eyes and mouth.

"Ugghmmmmfk…" She mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, doing her best to sit up. I helped to the best of my ability. She lazily turned her head in my direction, and it became obvious that she was still half asleep, if not more. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, giving her a little shake.

"Zoe? You alright…?" She opened her eyes, heavily glazed over. "Hello?" Her expression was unreadable, but she blinked a few times. I could see her pupils slowly come into focus, and she stared at me blankly for a few moments before her eyebrows furrowed in a confused manner.

"…Leo…?" Somewhat suddenly, she seemed to jolt to a much more aware state of mind. She glanced past my head, and I could see her become even more confused. "…What… the hell?" She grunted, shaking me off of her, and clumsily stood up. She looked all around, taking a good look at our surroundings, before gazing back at me. I could see the primal fear in her eyes. "LEO. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON." I placed my hands up.

"WHOA! Calm down! Panicking is the worst thing to do! Just breathe!" She fell to her knees, clutching the sides of her head. Much to my body's discontent, I crawled over to her, placing my arms around her shoulders. "Look, just… breathe. We'll figure this out." She closed her eyes, and looked like she was going to say something, before she just clamped her mouth back shut. We sat there for a minute or two, as she slowly calmed down. Once I was confident that she wouldn't panic again, I let her go. She opened her eyes, and turned to look at me.

"…Alright… I think I'm alright now… But… what happened…? Do you know?" She looked out at the endless ocean. "Where we are…?" I scratched the back of my head, sighing. I decided against telling her about my vision. She didn't need another thing to worry about.

"Well… Obviously we didn't crash with the plane. There are no parts of it anywhere around here anywhere, and I doubt we would have made it out alive to begin with." I closed my eyes, and cracked my neck. "There's really no way to know, but what happened shouldn't be our main concern. What should be our first objective…" I opened my eyes. "…Is finding out where the hell we landed." She sighed, looking to the ground and kicking the sand.

"Do you think anyone survived besides us?" I put my hand on her shoulder, and she looked at me with apparent despair. I shook my head, confirming what was pretty much obvious in the first place. Her spirits dropped as the situation really settled in, before her expression changed back into one of confusion. "Wait…" She tilted her head to the side. "…Then… who is that over there…?" She seemed to be looking past me, and I turned my head in said direction.

Far out in the distance, stood a man wearing a cyan shirt and what looked to be a ripped pair of blue jeans. What really stood out about him though, were his eyes. Even with the amount of space between us, I could clearly see that they were a plain pearly white; almost seeming to glow. I could see him narrow them, before looking down at a ragged brown book in his hands. I shouted out to him.

"Hey! You!" He looked back up at me, snapping the book shut. "Who are you?!" He stared at me with an unreadable expression, before kneeling down, and placing the book onto the sand. He then stood back up, turned around and started walking away; towards the edge of the beach, and into the jungle. My eyes widened. "HEY, WAIT!" I broke out into a sprint after him, as he disappeared into the greenery.

"Leo! No!" I came to a stop, and turned towards Zoe. "Don't go running off! We don't know where the hell we are! You'll get lost if you go in there!" I wanted to object, but it was obvious that she was right. I looked back out at where he had gone into the shrubbery, frustration brewing. I heard Zoe make her way over to me. "What's this?" I turned to see her kneeling down to pick something up. It was that book the man had put down; I guess I hadn't really paid it much attention when I went after him.

"What's the title? Or author?" She shook her head.

"There isn't one, the cover is blank…" She opened it to the first page, standing back up. "There's nothing written here either, just clean white pages…" I sighed, crossing my arms.

"Well that's just grea-" She put her hand up, interrupting me; her eyes were wide.

"Wait! Words are appearing on the page!" I looked at her, confused, and began walking over to get a look. She started reading. "**_Oh, um, _****_er_****_... Hi there, welcome to _****_Decoria_****_! My name is Paige, and I'll be your guide in learning basic survival_**_.__" _ She looked back up at me, her expression matching mine. She held out the book so I could see, and there were indeed words appearing right before my eyes. **_'Now, you might be wondering, "_****_A talking book? How is that even possible? Can it hear me?" Those are very valid questions, but I'd appreciate it if we could steer clear of the first one. It's a long story that I don't want to get into. _****_As for the second one, yes, I can. I can also see most of what's going on around _****_myself _****_in a sort o_****_f 'third person' view. Lastly, I am _****_a she, and would like to be referred to as such. Now, with that out of the way, why don't the two of you introduce yourselves? _****_Names?_**_'_ I blinked.

"Er. I'm Leonidas, and this here is Zoeya. Leo and Zoey work just fine though." _I'm talking to a book. What has my life come to?_ After a second or so, more words started to appear. '**_Nice to meet you then. _****_Now… you two are going to need shelter. The nights here are… let's j_****_ust say that they're unpleasant.'_** I bit my lip.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

**_'_****_It's not important right now, t_****_rust me. _****_Anywho_****_. _****_The first thing you're going to _****_need, _****_is wood. Do you see those trees on the edge of the beach?'_** I looked up, and saw that there were indeed a few palm trees on the strip of grass before cutting into the jungle. **_'Good. Now, obviously you'll need to cut those down before you can make anything useful.'_**

"But how are we supposed to do that? I don't see any axes around here."

**_'Oh, right. Guess I should get this out of the way, before I have to explain it twenty more times… Anything and everything you knew about how the world works? Throw it out. Literally chuck it out the window. _****_Things work differently here. _****_Alright. _****_Now that you've done that, I need you to go punch that tree. _****_A lot. _****_Over and over.'_** I blinked.

"…Seriously?" The book glowed.

**_'_****_Mhm_****_. Completely serious.'_** I looked at Zoe, and she seemed to be staring at me expectantly.

"Well?" I stared at her blankly.

"Well what?" She rolled her eyes.

"You heard her! Go punch the tree!" I looked at her like she'd just blown a fuse.

"Are you out of your mind?! I'd like my fist to remain **unbroken**, thank you very much!" She huffed.

"Look, after surviving a crash like that, meeting a mysterious man **with no pupils**, and then finding a talking book, I'm not sure WHAT to believe anymore! Just do it!" I shook my head.

"There is NO way you're getting me to punch that tree."

...

"I can't believe I'm seriously doing this." Fifteen minutes of arguing later, I'd finally just given in and walked over to the tree. The bloody girl is relentless. I shouted out to her, still standing back where we'd been. "I blame you if my fist breaks!" She just crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. I sighed, turning back to the tree. _Alright…__Just don't think about it, and maybe it won't hurt as bad._ Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth and drew my arm back. _Here goes…!_

I unleashed my full force onto the trunk in front of me. I braced myself… for the pain that never came. Opening my eyes, I noted that my fist had definitely made contact with the tree, but I didn't feel a thing. Removing my hand, I saw a few cracks had appeared in the trunk. I raised an eyebrow. I pulled my fist back again, and slugged the same spot I had before; a few more cracks sprung out from the original spot. Zoe called out to me

"What happened?!" I turned to look at her.

"Uhm, the tree cracked a bit where I hit it."

"Huh. Well, would ya look at that." I turned to the tree again, and gave it a few more punches. After the cracks had spread to the edge of the trunk, a portion of it about the size of my head miniaturized itself, and dropped down into my palm. Panic seized my body as I instinctively jumped back, worried that the now floating tree would fall on me. To my surprise, the tree did nothing of the sort, and instead continued levitating there like nothing had ever happened. I could hear Zoey burst into laughter behind me.

I rolled my eyes, before looking down at the small wooden cube that had dropped into my hand. Zoe made her way over to me, still giggling a bit.

"Oh my god, your reaction was amazing." I grumbled, giving her a light punch on the shoulder. She just choked out another few laughs, before stopping.

"So what do I do with this?" She looked at the little cube in my hand. The book glowed again, and she just handed it to me so that I could read it. **_'_****_There we go. That wasn't too hard, now was it? Alright, now, I need you to shove the cube in _****_your pocket._****_'_** I almost went to object, before deciding it wasn't worth it. I shoved the edge into my jeans pocket, and found it easily going inside; And then it seemed to disappear. I would say I was surprised, but after what had just happened, I think the initial shock period is over. Zoe patted where my pocket was, which was surprisingly flat.

"What the..." I glanced back at the book. **_'_****_Hehe, I forgot how fun it is to see newbies' reactions to this stuff. Anyway, next, just shove your hand into your pocket, and close your eyes. Zoey, read what I'm saying to him while he does this please.'_** I did as she asked, and found as I reached inside, that it was a lot bigger on the inside. As I closed my eyes, a grid appeared in my field of vision. Zoey continued reading.

"**_As you can probably see, your pockets have been converted into some sort of an inventory; about 32 boxes, and the piece of wood should be inside one of them. Try to imagine grabbing it with your hand, and pull your hand out._**" I did, and sure enough, the little cube was in my grasp as I pulled it out. "**_Now, put it back in but keep your grip on it. After you do that, you should see a 2x2 grid of boxes separate _****_from the others, with a arrow pointing to one on the right of it._****_You can craft things with this using materials you'll collect. Place the wood in one of the boxes, which will get you four wooden planks. Then fill the 2x2 with these to get a crafting table._** I went through the steps she had laid out, and got said product. I pulled it out, and found that it had actually worked.

"So... why do I need this if I can just do it in my head?"

"**_Well, first off, place it down. Just put it on the ground and it should become full size again._**" After doing so, it grew until it was about up to my waist height-wise. "**_See that there's a 3x3 of boxes on top of the table? That lets you make more complex stuff. Or at least, anything that has a shaped recipe._**" I tapped my foot on the sand.

"Alright, so what are some of the ones we need to know?"I just read the words on the page at this point. **_'Well, all you really need to know right now is a pickaxe and axe, so that's all I'm _****_gonna _****_give _****_ya_****_. I put them in a different section, near the end. When you need more of them, that's where they'll be. _****_Anywho_****_; I feel that's bout' it for now. I'll continue teaching you stuff later. Now, get going; it's around noon, I think.'_** I looked up from the page, at Zoe. She seemed to be thinking.

"Look, as much as this is all crazy and insane and ten other words of that sort, we really don't have much other choice but to do what she says. Plus, I don't really feel like sleeping outside tonight. So, here's what I'm thinking; I'll make you an axe with that recipe, while you go grab some wood and scout out somewhere to build. I'll stay here and see if I can find any clues as to how all of this happened on the beach here. Then, we'll meet back up around 6, and head over to whatever place you find and camp out for the night. It's not the most solid of plans, but I'm not sure what else there is that we can do." I sighed, scratching the back of my head.

"Yeah, alright, sure." She tried her best to put on a smile, but I could see through it easily. She was still really afraid, that much was obvious; but she was tough. And so am I. We'll get through this, together.

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><p><strong>This is SO much better than the original. SO MUCH.<strong>

**~LeonidasCraft~**


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